David Grislis

Adoption & Foster Care

About David Grislis

Narragansett-based David Grislis is heavily involved in the foster-care community. For those who do not know, foster care is a system for minors to receive guardianship from group homes, wards, and state-sponsored caregivers (also known as foster parents).

Foster care in the United States has its origins in the social efforts of 19th century philanthropist Charles Loring Brace. In order to save 30,000 homeless and neglected New York City children from “a lifetime of suffering”, he set out to place them with families all over the country. Because he sent most of these children to their new homes via train, this transfer became known as the “Orphan Train Movement”.

Involvement in the foster-care system is a deeply personal matter for David– it’s his way of giving back to others. Especially with young children, it’s doubly a unique experience and rewarding work. However, this work with the Department of Youth and Families can also be upsetting. When you’re a foster parent, you see just how much is wrong with society, and you suddenly realize how you shouldn’t take your family for granted. One of devastating pattern David Grislis has noted is the frequency at which children change hands. Many times, children are taken away from parents and placed into the foster system because their parents are struggling with addiction that prevents them from providing adequate care to their children. There appears to be hope, though, when the biological parents clean up and are deemed fit to care for their own. But far too often, the parents fall off of the wagon, plunging their children back into the foster care system. This happens throughout childhood. Before long the young person has finally reached the age of legal majority, still bouncing around for foster home to foster home. This is only exacerbated by the trend that after age two or three, many people are wary of taking in a foster child because they are unfairly viewed as “damaged goods”.

David wants to change these perceptions while providing care that so many children need. David Grislis has been caring for a new foster child now for about 18 months.

David Grislis loves bonding with his family via his physical pastime and sports fanaticism for hockey, including coaching the children’s teams. David Grislis works with DuPont. David is a man of action and loves hockey as well as advocates for adoption & foster care and reforms within the system. David Grislis‘s leisure time often finds him on the water or at an ice rink.